May 12, 2014

Coston on the Jordanian MERS death

Today PETRA, the official news agency of Jordan, has a long and detailed statement from the Jordanian Minister of Health. I would note that Ministry of Health’s English language website is offline, and I’ve not found the original statement yet on the Arabic version.

As we often see in these sorts of statements, the emphasis is one of reassurance; extolling their command of the situation, assurances that all local cases come from contact with `non-Jordanians’, and that citizens should pay no heed to rumors and should take advice or information on the virus only from the Ministry of Health.

Curiously, while stressing the importance of good hygiene (washing hands, covering coughs, etc) in the prevention of MERS, and taking pains to endorse `washing fruits and vegetables and nutritional balance & physical activity’, there is nary a mention of avoiding camels or camel products.

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Today PETRA, the official news agency of Jordan, has a long and detailed statement from the Jordanian Minister of Health. I would note that Ministry of Health’s English language website is offline, and I’ve not found the original statement yet on the Arabic version.

As we often see in these sorts of statements, the emphasis is one of reassurance; extolling their command of the situation, assurances that all local cases come from contact with `non-Jordanians’, and that citizens should pay no heed to rumors and should take advice or information on the virus only from the Ministry of Health.

Curiously, while stressing the importance of good hygiene (washing hands, covering coughs, etc) in the prevention of MERS, and taking pains to endorse `washing fruits and vegetables and nutritional balance & physical activity’, there is nary a mention of avoiding camels or camel products.